About Kirkwall
A guide to staying in Kirkwall
Kirkwall is the capital of the Orkney Islands and the place most visitors arrive first, whether they step off the NorthLink ferry from Aberdeen or land at Kirkwall Airport on a short Loganair hop from Inverness, Edinburgh or Glasgow. It is a working harbour town built around the red sandstone walls of St Magnus Cathedral, founded in 1137 and still the focal point that shapes Kirkwall's flagstone streets and narrow wynds and unhurried rhythm. With about 7,400 residents at the 2022 census, Kirkwall is small enough to walk end to end in twenty minutes, yet busy enough to feel like a proper town, with independent shops, supermarkets, a hospital, and a steady run of restaurants, bistros and pubs.
For visitors, Kirkwall functions as Orkney's natural base. Bus routes radiate to Stromness, Birsay, Stenness and the South Isles via the Churchill Barriers, and the inter-island ferries to Shapinsay, Westray and Sanday all leave from the harbour. Most major sights — the Cathedral, the Bishop's and Earl's Palaces, the Orkney Museum, the Highland Park distillery and Scapa Beach — are within a fifteen-minute walk of the centre, which is why so many travellers stay here even if they plan to roam the West Mainland or cross to Hoy.
Accommodation in Kirkwall covers the full spectrum. Most of the town's hotels sit in the centre, inside a ten-minute walk of the Cathedral, while a few are further out on Holm Road and Scapa Road where there is parking. We measured the walk from the Cathedral to each Kirkwall hotel rather than rounding it down. Alongside them are family-run guest houses and B&Bs on the residential streets around the town, and a growing number of self-catering flats and townhouses for groups, families and longer stays. Prices are highest in June, July and the week of the St Magnus International Festival in late June, with much better value in May and September — arguably the best months to visit, with long daylight, fewer crowds and reliable ferry crossings.
A small detail most guidebooks miss: the Cathedral is free to enter, and it hosts concerts and recitals through the year as well as during the festival — worth checking what is on while you are in town, because the building's acoustics are extraordinary and most of what happens in it is far cheaper than a festival ticket.